Tuesday, June 6, 2017

The Best Shills A Billionaire's Money Can Buy

HB 746 has been reported favorably out of both the House Judiciary IV and Finance Committees. Among other things, this bill would allow permitless concealed carry by anyone 18 and above who is legally entitled to possess a firearm. In other words, this bill would bring constitutional carry for concealed firearms to North Carolina.

As you can imagine, the usual suspects are lining up against it. The Raleigh News and Observer reports that the North Carolina chapter of the Moms Demand and Everytown, Americans for Responsible Solutions, and the leftist advocacy group Progress NC are joining forces to defeat HB 746. They have also commissioned "polls" which purport to show the majority of North Carolinians are against constitutional carry.

The mainstream media is doing its part by finding "hunters" and "gun owners" who oppose the bill as this tidbit from the N&O shows.

John “Curly” Brazelton of Havelock, a former Marine who belongs to a hunting club, said in an interview with The N&O last week that everyone in his hunting club opposes the idea of eliminating concealed-carry permits.

“We all have them,” Brazelton said. “We have the best law in the country right now.”

Of course the proposed law does not eliminate NC Concealed Handgun Permits. They will still be available for those who want to take advantage of reciprocity from those states that recognize the North Carolina permit.

However, all of this pales in comparison to the amount of money that Mike Bloomberg is spending on registered lobbyists. Not content with all the free support he is getting from the mainstream media and their efforts to find "gun owners" who oppose constitutional carry, he has hired a fleet of lobbyists from some of the leading North Carolina law and lobbying firms.

Knowing he has to convince just enough Republicans to side with the Democrats so that any anticipated veto of the bill by Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) cannot be overrode, one of Bloomberg's primary hires is lobbyist Chris McClure. McClure is a native of Haywood County where I resided for many years and made his bones working for Mark Meadows and Patrick McHenry. He also served as Executive Director of the NC Republican Party. The North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research ranked McClure the 24th most effective lobbyist in 2013. I'm sure his effectiveness rating is now higher.

Grass Roots North Carolina has more info on the other shills - I mean lobbyists - hired by Bloomberg to curtail constitutional rights in the Tar Heel State. They also request that you help stiffen the spine of the Republicans to withstand this onslaught.

Is NC For Sale? Bloomberg Thinks So.

Yesterday
we broke the news that Michael Bloomberg and his collection of
astroturf gun grabbing organizations have purchased the service of
several registered North Carolina lobbyists in an attempt to bring their
dangerous
big-government, anti-freedom agenda to North Carolina. Despite their
staggering losses (constitution carry is now the law in 16 states), they
continue
to burn up the out-of-state millions that Bloomberg has pledged to
whittle away your freedoms, and they're now bringing paid Bloomberg
mercenaries to
the table to do their legislative dirty work.

Worse yet, they've
been stoking media fears by making wild (and untrue) claims about Gun
Omnibus
Bill H746. Some of their wildest gesticulations are around allowing
law-abiding North Carolinians to carry a concealed handgun without a
permit.
Despite the usual fear-stoking and prognostications about blood in the
streets, the evidence from the other 13 states that now allow permitless
carry
suggests the opposite -- that empowering people to defend themselves and
their families correlates to a reduction in violent crime.

As a supporter
of Grass Roots North Carolina, you value transparency and
accountability. You know how important it is to follow the law in letter
and spirit, and you
know that public officials need to be held accountable for all of their
actions. Because lobbyists are bought and paid for by special interests,
the
law requires that they be registered. In that spirit, we'd like to
introduce you to the bought-and-paid-for "Everytown" influencers
that are now working hard to further Michael Bloomberg's agenda in North
Carolina. Go ahead and contact them if you'd like to, but if you do
make sure
you keep the tone polite, and if you call them, only call once. Be a role model of polite civility, and demonstrate that law-abiding gun
owners are model citizens.

Meet lobbyist Christopher McClure (chrismcclure@brookspierce.com, 919-882-2502) of the law firm Brooks Pierce.
Despite his long
history of voting in Republican primaries (why don't you look up his
voter registration, which lists his home address as 223 Crisp St.,
Durham, NC),
Chris now finds himself with the unenviable task of convincing lawmakers
(many of whom proclaimed to be staunchly pro-second amendment) to do
Michael
Bloomberg's bidding.

Meet Brian Lewis (brian@newframellc.com, 919-413-2580). His company, New Frame LLC,
is on the Bloomberg
take. Like Elizabeth, Brian has a long history of voting in Democratic
primaries (his home address is listed in the voter rolls as 114
Southwold Dr.,
Cary, NC), suggesting that he, too, might be sympathetic to anti-freedom
causes.

Meet Skye David of New Frame LLC (skye@newframellc.com,
812-881-0200). It's surprising that a person who claims to advocate for
victims of
domestic violence would align herself with a group that seeks to empower
domestic violence aggressors by disarming their victims. Skye's voter
registration is recent (address withheld), but her alignment to
Bloomberg's blood money make her politics plainly clear.

DELIVER THIS
MESSAGE

I understand that a vote on the omnibus gun rights had to be
postponed last week due to late-night budget negotiations. That is
disappointing, but I also understand the bill will be brought to the
floor for a
vote this week. That's good news.

I am writing today to ask you to
vote ‘Yes’ on this bill on the House floor, and to vote
‘No’ on any weakening amendments. The right to keep and bear arms is a
fundamental human right, and North Carolinians are finally making
headway in rolling back the oppressive erosion of this right that has
taken place in recent decades. Let’s keep that freedom trend going!

On
that same note, I would also remind you that strong support for
“constitutional carry” is an explicit part of the Republican Party’s
2016 platform (see page 12), just as gun rights in general are. With
this fact at the forefront, I can see no reason for any Republican to
shy away
from supporting this gun-rights legislation. In fact, among other
things, pro-Second Amendment policy is precisely what voters had in mind
when they
chose you as their representative.

We are aware of the
Bloomberg-funded lobbyists that are whispering in your ear. Do you
really want to align
yourself with Bloomberg's carpetbagging mercenaries?Represent voters,
and not the big-money, anti-gun interests from New York City!

I’ll be
eagerly awaiting more news on this topic from Grass Roots North Carolina legislative alerts.